fort. The geological column of tips plain, after
passing down through the Unconsolidated strata,
appears to be composed of various strata of
cornifêrous limestone, Onondaga or hydraulic
limestone, and perhaps Medina sandstone. Geological
causée, originating, so far as we can immediately
pereérvê, in the two Streams named,
have cut down this series of stratifications, idn the
north, east and west, unequally, to the depth of
some eighty or ninety fëet, isolating the original
plain, on three sides, by the valleys of AÜen’srereek
and Fordham’s brook. Availing themselves of
this heavy amount of natural excavation, the'
ancient occupants of it further strengthened its
position, by casting up a wall and ditch along the
brow of the two valleys, at the points of their junction,
from A to B, 60 rods 5, from A to- D, 30 .rods;
and from B tb.C,‘l?> rods. This is as much of the
embankment as now remains 5 but tradition adds,
that on 1he earliest occupancy of the - country,
thére Were evidences that the work had been continued
south from the extreme points,. G, D, and
connected by an enclosure, parallel to A, B, which
would have given it a regular quadrangular shape.
The encroachments of fhe,respective valleys, at
C and D, now terminate the trench. And if we
concede that geological changes of this kind
must have required some time for their production,
by the present power of action possessed
by the streams named, it is an argument for the
antiquity of the work. But, however antique, it
was still the. effort of a rude, and at best half
civilized people, at an epoch when bows and
arrows* clubs, spears and stones, and the stone
cas-satete^ Were'the principal weapons of defence.
For these'' are .the chief objects of- antiquarian
interest dug from the ground. There are also
disclosed4hyrthe place or its-vicinity; the amule-
tum archams and other amulets of sea shell, bone
and sfessil 'stohe,; whiqh were so mhch prized by
the ancient red races of this continent, by whom
they v were manufactured, and exolusivly used
before the eta M the discovery. That the spot
continued, however; Whether a ruin or not, tobe
visited or occupied; i after this era, is proved hy
some remains* of art, which were found here'and
described by Mr. 'Follet, in a letter which constitutes
a valuable part of the materials employed
in this^. description. But the most Remarkable
and distinctive trait connected with its archaeology,
is the discovery of human bones denoting
* I fipd tWFrench-wctpd cassatete more.exactly descriptive
pF Jbejjrobahle a^oid e^clusiye uses of the ftntiqup' stone toenail
awkv tlAn any-ofl^ej,, which has ./hpen '-meh with. The
;s^ape* o s t ia l Warlike instrument fes&mbled strongly the
•ancient crdssbrlL < It presents the figure 6fi'h<$res<ienfe;'tapering
gradually^ the etfds>, -whioh - are“-rOutd ed and proceed to a
sharp ppin^ In the concave centre of the drescentjs'an orifice
for a helve«, 'It is an lnstrp^nt^deia^n^ skilU and the pps‘
"spssjttn'of l^an i l l
dark sllpmls J ’SeJfrom w h lq fj is ^ e fa lly made: One of
these ihatru&ehts ‘sent foArS^'h^'Mr. Follet, of Batavia, and
; which, frppa, an. lfiscdptiotf,' was found “ in that vicinity hy
Jerome A. Glafk, £sq./o,n the'lfith May, 1844,”.,is worthy
the chisel .of a sculptor.
1 2 7 : ' '